Thursday, 18 July 2013

Let's face it. In the business and corporate world, the customary practice of ethical distance has always been part of the internal code of conduct. As a matter of integrity, you have to behave in a manner that is above suspicion and beyond reproach. Too much familiarity is discouraged. You don't mix business with pleasure, and the personal has no effect on the professional.

However, with technology racing at top speed and communication zooming alongside it, the concept of distance has changed. Business has turned to e-commerce. Through the worldwide web, bosses and employees alike now connect in real time and we even interact on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Instead of going the distance to your boss's office, you can now exchange instant messages and tweets with just a few clicks on your computer in the privacy of your office or in the comfort of your home. Does this really mean that you are only a few clicks away from getting your job promotion or your salary increase?Can you work on it in your pyjamas at home?Can you do the shortcuts and fast-track your way into these goals by inviting your boss to be your Facebook friend?

When you're looking forward to moving ahead in your career or finding a new job, then personal connections via Facebook can become one of your major assets.

The more successful you are in connecting, interacting, and socializing with all kinds of people, the more your boss will perceive you as someone who can manage employees at all levels. The more your boss knows that you haven't been corrupted by all the tempting offers and unscrupulous practices on the web, the more your boss will understand how credible you are and how well you fit into the job.

In the end, just make sure of two things. If you have been made the exception as a Facebook friend, see to it that you are just as exceptional in your work such that no one can be snide about it. Another is to make sure that when it comes to business, you share something more in common with your boss than being Facebook friends.

Monday, 1 July 2013

Could Rhonda Byrne be wrong? Could there really be another Secret? According to C. Perry Yeatman and Stacie Nevadomski Berdan, the authors of Get Ahead By Going Abroad: A Woman's Guide To Fast-Track Career Success, there is indeed another secret: working abroad gets you up the career ladder faster -- especially if you are a woman struggling to break through the proverbial glass ceiling at home.

Perry and Stacie are living testimony to the power of working abroad. Perry was a 25 year-old account executive making US$25,000 a year when she moved from Baltimore, Maryland to Singapore to accept her first job overseas. Ten years later, with additional stints in Moscow and London, Perry catapulted to earning US$500,000 per year and found herself touring exotic cities with global CEOs and former heads of state like Margaret Thatcher. Today, Perry is one of the top fifty executives at Kraft Foods, the second-largest food and beverage company in the world.

Stacie moved to Hong Kong the day after her wedding, at age twenty-seven. She took up a vice-president position at Burson-Marsteller -- a leading global PR firm. Upon her return to Washington, D.C. only three years later, Stacie became a global managing director. By the age of 34, she was named a partner in WPP, parent company to Burson-Marsteller, and ranked in the top 1 percent of the largest communications conglomerate in the world. Today, Stacie is a successful author and a sought-after speaker and consultant.

But it is not just Perry and Stacie who have shot ahead by going abroad. To prove their theory, the authors conducted a global online survey of more than 200 women who had spent significant time abroad. A convincing 85 percent agreed that going overseas had accelerated their careers. Now that is a figure not to be scoffed at.

As a former expat in Indonesia and Mexico, I loved reading Get Ahead By Going Abroad because it took me up close and personal with Perry, Stacie and other similarly successful expat women -- who share insights never normally offered to anyone outside their trusted inner circles. I also enjoyed the fact that the book is written differently from your standard how-to fare: it intersperses advice, checklists and get-ahead tools with loads of quotes from the 40 women the authors interviewed in-depth to make their material real.

Whilst aimed at the niche female market, this book is a must-have for anyone wanting to: land an international assignment; negotiate the best possible contract; know what to expect when they arrive; and strategically transition themselves into a premium position upon repatriation.

If you fancy a stab at accelerated success, doused with the excitement of living in a foreign land, Get Ahead By Going Abroad is definitely one of those books you should Google today.

Copyright belongs to Andrea Martins.

Reprints welcomed.

First published by The Telegraph (UK) online on 14 May 2008.

Andrea Martins is the Director and Co-Founder of ExpatWomen.com (http://www.expatwomen.com/) -- a global resource site full of inspiring features to help all women living outside of their home country. Visit ExpatWomen.com today as your first-stop website to get inspired, share stories, network globally, develop personally and find the best resources.